After Sailors, my party had a choice: head north into some canyonlands (toward People of the Pit), or follow a small stream down the mountains to the south, which led into a swamp (Doom of the Savage Kings). They chose south. We handled a bit of the movement by e-mail/pbp, and the group chanced upon the pit of the hound in the mid-morning of the first day trudging through the swamp. They didn't have enough rope to descend into the depths, and one of the clerics used detect evil to determine that there was some serious evil down at the bottom. They returned to the stream and kept following it through the swamp, eventually coming upon the standing stones at about dusk. Shortly after they arrived and were investigating the stones, the mob led by the Jarl appeared.

There was a little bit of puffery, but the party allowed the mob to tie Morgan to the altar. They told the Jarl they were going to kill the hound, which was greeted with laughter. "Bring me the head, and you will be rewarded. I don't expect I'll ever see you again," he said.

So the party built a small campfire and took up defensive positions in the mist. Eventually the hound appeared from a random direction and pounced on the chaotic warrior, Juan Delgado, now clad in the black steel plate mail from Molan. (Combined with a shield, he's got a 19 AC... pretty stout. But, he only has 5 hp... so, I'm looking forward to finally connecting with a critical on him. heh heh.) The hound was rather ineffectual, and after the surprise round, the party engaged it. Shun Tai the Elf failed a sleep spell and put himself to sleep instead, but the other elf, Miao Yen, used color spray to knock the hound unconscious and blind it. (There's nothing I could see in demon traits that said immune to sleep or blindness, unfortunately.)

From there, they decided to tie it up - they had 50' of rope and 20' of chain - and then proceeded to whale on it. Rolling d24s to attack, first Juan Delgado missed (hah) but then Dolores the Thief, Fatty McGee the Warrior, and Yngwie Malmsteen the Dwarf all rolled criticals, so the hound went splat rather quickly. After it dissolved, Juan Delgado was convinced it was dead and that the Jarl owed them a reward, but Dolores reminded him that they needed a head for that.

Upon freeing Morgan, who was hysterical but ultimately calmed down and was grateful (though she wondered why they hadn't freed her before the hound came), and seeing that the party was mostly interested in a reward, offered that her father, Broegan, would reward the party. They determined that walking into town with Morgan visible was a bad idea, so Dolores used some make-up (Disguise +3 on Chaotic Thieves!) and cut her hair a bit and they trudged off to the town some distance away.

The guardsmen hailed them and let them in, asking for news of the outside world. The party comes from a town called Farburg (well, that's the castle that protects the town, anyway), though the people of Hirot live on the other side of some tall mountains, and have never heard of it. They went to the inn and Broegan was very pleased. He fed them a few rumors, and knew about the mound of the Ulfeonar, the ancient ones. Determining that the wolf spear was a fake, they did some light shopping and picked up a few new suits of armor and some shields before setting out for the tomb.

Once there, Dolores discovered a bundle in the pool, but they failed (after 3! attempts) to push open the door, so started looking around for another way in. They discovered the collapsed wall and climbed down inside, explored to the main chamber with all the snakeskins. They quickly discovered the crawlspace, and Leroy Jenkins the Thief climbed up inside, slowly and carefully, with a torch. He didn't go very far... they'd tied a rope to him to pull him out, and he wisely realized that the turns in the passage would prevent that, so he left before he'd gone far enough for the third tomb ghoul to sneak up on him.

They then went south and into the tomb of the bear, and searching around were attacked by the ghouls. The ghouls successfully hit Yngwie, but the dwarf has pretty good hit points, and then the party's warriors administered a beatdown. My players seem to like the defensive fighting deed as a default... part of that is because they're mostly in light armor, except for Juan Delgado.

Anyway, the ghouls went splat, then they explored south to the pit, took the stairs down to discover the spears, then went back upstairs. Seeing the danger in the room, Dolores said "Hey, let's break off all those spears before we cross, JUST IN CASE WE FALL." +1 xp for that, Dolores, well played.

We halted there, but I fully expect they'll arouse the water elemental next session and somebody's gonna get drowned. !

Interesting point about the default of a defensive deed. As perpetual power-gamers I expect my players will do the same, and be rewarded with titles as appropriate, such as 'Yngwie the Cautious' or 'Fattie the Timid'.

Tonight, my players had a TPK in the fens when they got outnumbered and swarmed by swamp jackals. More than half of my damage rolls with the jackals came up as maximum, and the most hit points any single character had was 16. The whole combat lasted four rounds.

_________________"The Shamrock Shake is a frosty, minty symbol of all that we hold dear. It is shameful that we as a people cannot enjoy this proud, symbolic beverage any more than one week a year. Unless the British government loosens its iron grip on this most Irish of shakes, the streets will once again run red with English blood." - Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, the IRA's political wing.

Tonight, my players had a TPK in the fens when they got outnumbered and swarmed by swamp jackals. More than half of my damage rolls with the jackals came up as maximum, and the most hit points any single character had was 16. The whole combat lasted four rounds.

There's a delicate balancing act that we do when we GM/DM/Judge. Part of the appeal of Old School is to get away from the balanced encounters and to inject a degree of mortality into the game.

I make it clear that I don't pull any punches on dice rolls and that TPKs are possible.

However, I can completely understand if players feel, after a TPK, "Well, that was a waste of time. I don't ever want to play that game again."

Of course what they fail to realize is that when the dice are coming out on their side, the luck goes both ways. Few players ever complain that "Well, that was a waste of time. We all survived and got all of the best treasure, despite not working as a team or making the smartest possible choices." I think it takes some brutally honest conversations up front that -- yes -- this could happen to you, so play smart, play as a team, and wish for good luck. Then you might have a decent chance.

An analogy I like to throw around is 80s video games versus modern ones. When you played Space Invaders, Pac Man, and Asteroids you knew that you were going to die; it was just a question of when and how long you could go. The expectations were there up front. But with modern video games you just go back to the most recent save / respawn point.

Can you imagine that mechanic in Pac Man? A ghost gets you and you just reappear backward in time ten seconds earlier. What would be the point?

Tonight, my players had a TPK in the fens when they got outnumbered and swarmed by swamp jackals. More than half of my damage rolls with the jackals came up as maximum, and the most hit points any single character had was 16. The whole combat lasted four rounds.

... man, that's a bummer.

//H

They had actually fought the hound three times, killing it every time but failing to bind it. They had already visited the black pool twice and had acquired rope braided with a dead man's hair and the wolf-spear. When the swamp jackals attacked they were just waiting to fight the hound a fourth time. I ended the session by saying they all wake up in the Hound's lair, near the black pool, with the hound coming ever closer to them.

I plan on starting the next session with the chaotic wizard in the party having her "Invoke Patron" spell replaced with an "Invoke the Hound" spell and the party has already initiated the Balance Blade adventure as if the Hound sent them. I think the way Balance Blade ends is appropriate for what the Hound does, and wants. I'm also changing the exact nature of the Balance Blade so it fits more with the Hound, a soul-devouring blade that requires it's victims be put through pain or torture before death.

In pure Appendix N style, I think every adventure I run from this point forward is going to be episodic and start every new adventure with a brief explanation of how the time was spent between adventures.

_________________"The Shamrock Shake is a frosty, minty symbol of all that we hold dear. It is shameful that we as a people cannot enjoy this proud, symbolic beverage any more than one week a year. Unless the British government loosens its iron grip on this most Irish of shakes, the streets will once again run red with English blood." - Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, the IRA's political wing.

An analogy I like to throw around is 80s video games versus modern ones. When you played Space Invaders, Pac Man, and Asteroids you knew that you were going to die; it was just a question of when and how long you could go. The expectations were there up front. But with modern video games you just go back to the most recent save / respawn point.

That is a beautiful analogy!

_________________"The Shamrock Shake is a frosty, minty symbol of all that we hold dear. It is shameful that we as a people cannot enjoy this proud, symbolic beverage any more than one week a year. Unless the British government loosens its iron grip on this most Irish of shakes, the streets will once again run red with English blood." - Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, the IRA's political wing.

We picked up just after they'd finished more or less exploring the tomb. The group decided to go back and try the big doors in the main chamber again, but couldn't figure out how to move them. They seem convinced I'm hiding something behind the doors, that there's a puzzle they have to work out to get it to open. Chuckle.

They boost up two halflings into the crawl space - Gomez and Ian - to check out what's at the other end. They crawl through and make it to the false tomb, and are inspecting the pillar and trying to figure out how to get the spear and shield down when the final ghoul attacks. Between the surprise round and the high initiative roll, the ghoul and its protruding snake fell Gomez, but Ian strikes back with a critical hit and nearly kills the snake. The following round the ghoul misses badly, and Ian finishes off the snake. I judged that this killed the ghoul, since the snakes are supposed to be animating them, although the module didn't specify this so far as I saw. Rolling over Gomez's inert body finds him still alive, so he's sent back out of the tunnel to be healed by the new Cleric of the Son, Silas. Anyway, the party then sends up Yngwie Malmsteen, a dwarf, to inspect the pillar, but he notices the chimney leading to the true tomb. Leroy Jenkins the Thief climbs up and warily knocks the Ulfeonar's skull off to make sure it's not going to animate on him, then takes the spear and pelt and drinking horn.

Next they use the grappling hook that somebody started with and some rope to try to rope the spear down. Yngwie triggers the trap, and misses the spear. He easily makes the first save for damage, and has a high initiative, so he picks up the grapple and throws it again, this time catching the spear. I give Yngwie's player (Carsten) a choice: he can try to grab the spear but he's going to take a whole round to grab it then turn around and get out, and the room is obviously collapsing, or he can get out this round. (Yngwie's stats are pretty awesome, and he has the flaming flail, so he prudently decides to bail on the spear.) They are pretty bummed when the room collapses, figuring that they needed it.

After some more exploring and searching, they are in the bear tomb and John Craven, Cleric of the Father, decides to call upon divine aid to figure out "what's up with the altar?" Perhaps despite his ridiculous disapproval history, he rolls a natural 20. There's a crack of thunder and the altar stone splits in two, revealing the skulls and bear skin beneath. Miao Yen the Elf takes both, puts them on, and now wields the wolf spear.

They finally decide to leave, and go back to the pool to pull out one of the bundles, when they're ambushed by Iraco & Co. Surprise round, based on their line up I have two men shoot at Juan Delgado the Chaotic Warrior, and then one each on 4 others. Two dice rolled for Juan's attackers, two natural 20s. Juan is stuck like a pincushion with arrows and goes down (failed fortitude saves to shrug off the crits; he opted not to burn luck to make them since he only has 5 hp max, which turns out to be wise later on...). Miao Yen and Ian get shot as well. Next round, the huntsmen roll high initiative and fire again, dropping Dolores and wounding Miao Yen more. Miao Yen moves forward and uses a sleep spell to take out two of the men, who've dropped their bows and pulled out swords, and the others debate what to do and gradually try to move forward to get into range. [Judge aside: ranged weapons at 100' are BRUTAL... they couldn't get close enough to melee, and were scared to death of being within close range and getting "death star"'d by the archers. I dig it.]

Iraco and one of his men advanced and engaged Ian, two d20s ... two 1s. What are the odds of two 20s and two 1s in one night? Anyway, their fumble rolls were both "weapon breaks on a rock" and "weapon falls apart," so that was kind of ridiculous. Then Fatty McGee charged Iraco and did a called shot mighty deed to the head with a battle axe. Natural 19, 3 on the deed die = dead Iraco. (Actually, he didn't do enough hp damage to kill him, but I judged that +1d4 for a head shot with a battle axe just wasn't right, so Iraco died. I did require Fatty to make a reflex save, which he failed, so he ended up lodging the axe in the guy's skull.) The sleepers woke up and charged to join the fray, but then the party made short work of them and captured one guy, though one of the bowmen escaped. All of the dead survived, although Juan Delgado had to burn 5 Luck to make it... he's now down to 7. The physical stat loss is also starting to take its toll.

They interrogated him for a while, then decided to camp inside the tomb of the lion. Overnight they heard the howling of the wolf in the far distance...

Next morning, they went back towards town and sent Dolores (in disguise, go Chaotic Thief) into town to reconnoiter. The place had obviously been attacked by the Hound, and she talked with Broegan to confirm that. Father Beacom was out preaching in the square ("You SODOMITES brought this on yerselves!") so she moseyed up to the Church and went in. Peeking under the curtain she saw the warhammer, and took it. Father Beacom noticed her coming out of the Church and started preaching at her. She prostrated herself and being disguised as a filthy beggar, he didn't think anything of it. However, once he notices the warhammer's head is gone . . .

We ended there. They're setting up for a titanic showdown with the Hound. Current plan is to tie the prisoner to the stone as bait and wait for it to appear.

We finished up Doom of the Savage Kings on Tuesday night. It was semi-anti-climactic. (I think the Hound needs to get scaled up when you have a herd of level 1s, heh. Also I'm not entirely clear on the demon traits issue, maybe it should have been immune to non-magic weapons? But it seems like that'd make it impossible for new parties to do anything except with the spear, thus encountering the hound before the spear = TPK... so that can't be it.)

They decided to march the prisoner to the standing stones, tied him to the altar, and waited for the Hound. After nightfall, the mist rolled in and the Hound obligingly appeared, and slaughtered Yngwie Malmsteen with a critical bite that included the loss of 4 hps permanently. Ouch. However, despite knowing that they needed to pin the Hound with the spear, they actually killed it too quickly, before the guy with the spear even got to attack, thanks to a hard critical by Fatty McGee.

Poof went the Hound, but Silas the Cleric (former farmer) quickly came to Yngwie's aid and healed him, so no stat loss. The party decided to go to try to slay the Hound in its lair (or what they surmised was its lair), which they'd discovered on their way down the mountainside from the end of Sailors on the Starless Sea. It took most of the night, and there was an encounter with some swamp jackals that proved fatal for two of the horses they had, but they made it without serious damage. Juan Delgado the Chaotic Warrior climbed down their makeshift rope/chain combo to the bottom, but the Hound wasn't present.The bulk of the party climbed down and there was some wandering around, sticking the spear in the oily water, etc, to try to make the Hound appear. Then Yngwie decided to dig through the detritus around the pool and the party uncovered all the loot there. Since the Hound didn't appear, they decided to just head back to the stones and wait for it again.

The following night, the Hound once more appeared, but this time it wasn't successful at injuring anyone seriously. And the dwarf with the Wolfspear actually got the killing blow with the spear, which I judged kept the Hound from dissolving into mist and escaping. So they quickly cut its head off. Here's some photos from the final battle, showing the Hound mini (a Fenris wolf):

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After that, the party skinned the hide off the demon hound (not sure what's going to happen with this but it sounds like fun) and took the head and marched to Hirot. The guards at the gate spied them and an alarm was sounded, and the Jarl and his men came to the top of the gate and called out to them. There was some banter back and forth between the Jarl and Leroy Jenkins, particularly because the party was a little annoyed that they weren't getting any reward and that whole "he tried to have us killed by archers" thing... for his part, the Jarl wanted to fight, but the party was too big for him and his thegns to handle, so they wisely retreated back into the town after riding out briefly on horseback. Basically it ended in a draw, the Jarl saying "we won't charge you for all the death and destruction you've brought on our town with your meddling, but you're not welcome here so scram."

Dolores impressed the captive huntsman into her service (with a few meaningful looks and a few prods of her dagger's blade) and he led the party to a river to the south, which ultimately led them back through the badlands and the desert to their home town. They party split up the jewelry and coins they'd found and sold some other stuff, etc.

I think I may have some homebrew shenanigans next, what with Juan Delgado the bastard son of the ruling family parading around town in blackened platemail armor and the silk tabard of Chaos. With his AC, though, he's tough to hit. But I may give another opportunity to go to People of the Pit. I'd like to thin the party out some, maybe down to one or two characters per player, because it's a little large and unwieldy right now.

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